I have to stop reading lists of great barbecue restaurants around the country. I love great barbecue. Heck, I'd even pick mediocre barbecue over a lot of good non-barbecue restaurants. So when I see one of the million lists on the 'net of places with great barbecue, I click and read…and I keep wondering why I do this to myself.

Take this one, for instance. I've only been to one of the ten places listed. It was Arthur Bryant's in Kansas City and frankly, I was not impressed. I've had better, less famous barbecue. In fact, I had better barbecue (I thought) the next night at Jack Stack in the same city.

But look at the other nine. Lockhart, Texas? Chapel Hill, North Carolina? Owensboro, Kentucky? When in the name of Tony Roma am I ever going to find myself in Owensboro, Kentucky? I can't imagine any scenario that takes me within 100 miles of Owensboro. Maybe a comic book convention…but I turn down most invites to comic conventions these days and when I do go to one, I usually don't see much more of the city it's in than the airport, the convention center, the freeway between them and either a Marriott, a Hyatt or a Hilton.

While in Phoenix a few weeks ago, I did get away from the con for one barbecue expedition. My friend Phil Geiger had a car so we grabbed up Len Wein and drove to a Famous Dave's about twelve miles away. But that was twelve miles and Phil had a car and anyway, I'm not going to Owensboro, Kentucky. So what does it matter to me that the Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn there serves "hickory-smoked, pit-cooked mutton?"

And I'm not going to have them ship me an order, either. Barbecue was meant to be eaten hot off the grill. Even the best of it doesn't make it as leftovers the next day. (By the way, Famous Dave's ain't bad for a chain but the best barbecue is eaten in restaurants that don't have a lot of locations.)

When our friend Dave Stevens passed, his fellow artist Bill Stout and I drove up to Modesto for a day to attend the funeral. Before the service, we went to a barbecue place that may well be the best I've ever tried. I had brisket and chicken and they were both about as good as could be. I didn't try the ribs because I am incapable of eating ribs neatly and I didn't want to speak at the memorial with barbecue sauce all over my face and clothes.

My enjoyment of the meal was tempered by the knowledge that I would probably never return to the area. Modesto is 300 miles from Los Angeles and about a hundred miles from San Francisco or San Jose or any other city in which I might someday find myself.

So I'm going to stop reading lists of and articles about great barbecue restaurants in some distant corner of South Carolina. It's for the same reason that my friend Ricky back in high school decided to stop reading Playboy magazine. He used to say, "Why torture myself with visions of places I'm never going to visit?"

You may have already seen this. Videographer Jos Stiglingh slapped a GoPro Hero 3 Silver onto a DJI Phantom 2 and sent it flying up into the nucleus of a fireworks show the other night. The drone apparently escaped unharmed and the video it got was well worth the risk. Take this full screen and sit there watching, going "Oooh" and "Ahhh" a lot…

When entertainer Steve Rossi died recently, I was too busy to write this post. Now, I'm not.

There were a few years in this country when the team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis was the hottest act the business had ever seen. They made movies, they appeared on TV, they worked clubs, they had their own DC comic book and they spawned hundreds upon hundreds of imitators. It was like every comedian who couldn't get a job teamed up with a singer who couldn't get a job and they were promoted as "The new Martin and Lewis." Some guys went from partner to partner to partner to partner, searching for that magic combination. There were "hot new teams" that lasted a year or two and others that endured for two consecutive nights at a supper club off the turnpike in New Jersey.

With no statistics or data whatsoever, I'm going to guess that less than 10% of these Dean-and-Jerry wanna-bes lasted long enough to pay either's rent for six months. The two combos that you could say really made it were (1) Dan Rowan and Dick Martin and (2) Marty Allen and Steve Rossi. Rowan and Martin broke the format slightly because Rowan didn't sing but they were still sold as "The new Martin and Lewis." Hey, one of them was even named Martin!

(Before anyone asks, "What about Wayne and Shuster?": They teamed up in the forties, not as a response to the grosses of Martin and Lewis, and they were popular in Canada before anyone there had ever heard of Dino and Jer.  But even they came to be referred to as "The Canadian Martin and Lewis" for a while there.)

When Dan and Dick or Marty and Steve had decent material and — probably more important — decent management, both teams did okay. In both pairings, you could sense the same dynamic: The straight man (Rowan, Rossi) would never have been in the comedy business at all if not for the funny one. And the funny one (Martin, Allen) was appealing but maybe not a strong enough performer to go it alone. He was funny responding and reacting to the other guy and the match-up gave form to his comedy. Together though, either pair could easily supply laughs for seven minutes on The Ed Sullivan Show or The Mike Douglas Show or any program on which they could build their reputations. And then those reps got them booked into Vegas, booked into Miami Beach, signed for a movie, etc. Rowan and Martin largely built their careers on plugs in Walter Winchell's newspaper column; Allen and Rossi on Sullivan's heralding of them as the hottest comedy team in the business. If Ed said it, it often became so.

I was never a huge fan of either duo but when they were on, I'd watch. I felt no sense of loss though around '68 when Allen and Rossi broke up for the first of many, many times. I don't know what it was but thereafter, each would work solo or with different partners for a time. Then they'd reteam for some engagement and it would be ballyhooed as a world-shattering event that Marty Allen and Steve Rossi had reunited. Then a few months later each would again be working solo or with different partners for a time. Then they'd reteam for some engagement and it would be ballyhooed as a world-shattering event that Marty Allen and Steve Rossi had reunited.

And so on and so on and so on…

One major reteaming occurred around 1991. There was then a gent named Bob Stupak who owned and operated a hotel-casino in Las Vegas called Bob Stupak's Vegas World. Stupak was the last of a breed of colorful entrepreneurs in that town who seemed to fly by the seat of their trousers, getting in the press all the time for outrageous stunts and ideas. A lot of Stupak's sounded as if they were done on mad impulse; like he'd suddenly decide to bet a million dollars on some sports team or randomly give away thousands of free vacations to his resort. I followed his exploits, all the time suspecting that he was more clever and calculating than he appeared.

But maybe not. Vegas World isn't there anymore. It was sold and reconfigured as a hotel called the Stratosphere and that's too bad. I wish you could have seen its interior design. The place looked like what you'd get if you gave a few million dollars to a 12-year-old Star Trek fan and let him spend it redecorating his bedroom.

In its final years, Stupak gave Allen and Rossi what was announced as a "lifetime contract" to play Bob Stupak's Vegas World. It was reportedly something he offered on a whim during a dinner meeting, scribbling its terms out on a napkin. I believe this occurred in 1991 and Bob Stupak's Vegas World closed in February of 1995. But that didn't affect that "lifetime contract" because by '93, Allen and Rossi had split — from Stupak and, once more, from each other.

Before that happened, I saw one of them at Vegas World.  Late in '91 or maybe early in '92, I was in town and hanging out with a bunch of stand-up comedians I knew who were playing the comedy club at the Riviera. That night, their second show was canceled due to some special function that needed the room so we all went to a comped dinner at the Riviera buffet — an okay place to eat as long as it was free. Then, once we were all sufficiently buffeted, one of the comics announced that we were all going over to Mr. Stupak's World to see Steve Rossi. I asked, "Allen and Rossi?" He said no, just Steve Rossi. Actually, it was a show called "So Big Burlesque" fronted by and apparently produced in part by Mr. Rossi.

Allen and Rossi did the early show together at Vegas World. The late show was "So Big Burlesque" which starred Rossi, a bunch of odd variety acts and no Marty Allen but several strippers with…well, I believe the medical term would be "huge gazongas." The featured stripper was a lady who was then appearing in several different venues at the same time. How could she do that? Well, it helps if you have 77" breasts.

Or maybe they were larger than that. Her name was Platinum Peaks and she was a very attractive blonde lady who'd had implants the size of Buick Skylarks. People would ask, "What does she do?" and there were many snide answers to that but the two most-heard were, "She stands up" and "She doesn't have to do anything." As it turned out, both described her act to a "t."

Leafing through one of those free Vegas magazines, I saw her listed as appearing in "So Big Burlesque" and at several local strip clubs, all on the same night at staggered times. One could imagine her and her breasts staggering from job to job every evening, presumably in the same vehicle. One ad touted her top measurement as 77". Another said 80". A poster outside the Vegas World showroom said 88". My friends and I decided that once you passed 70", it didn't matter and anyway, it could vary that much depending on the pollen count.

Anyway, we all went to see "So Big Burlesque." I think tickets were like $9.95 but one of the comedians insisted that we not pay. Instead, he found the showroom manager and identified all of us, including me, as fellow performers on The Strip. Through a thick cloud of chutzpah, he asked, "Isn't it customary that as a matter of professional courtesy, we get in free?"  The manager gave us a look of ennui and waved us in. It was easy to find seats because, at least that night, about 70% of them were and would remain unoccupied. (The show later played at least one other Vegas hotel, I believe without Rossi, so it apparently had some drawing power other evenings.)

A recorded orchestra played an overture and we heard an off-stage announcer welcome us and then give the most flowery, praise-filled introduction of the star of the show, the greatest and most popular entertainer in the history of show business. The voice urged us to give him the kind of applause that a true superstar deserves — and now, here he is, the one and only, legendary Mr. Steve Rossi!

We all did as the off-stage announcer urged…and it wasn't until after his opening song when Rossi began speaking that we realized he had been the off-stage announcer.

His singing was fine. His connection with the audience was very polished and professional. His monologue wasn't bad if you didn't mind leftovers from Morey Amsterdam's act intermingled with talk of how spectacularly popular STEVE ROSSI and Marty Allen were. One of the comics I was with muttered, just loud enough so we could hear and no one else could, "Steve…you're starring in 'So Big Burlesque' at Bob Stupak's Vegas World for $9.95 to a house that's a third full and half of us were comped." Another comic added, "And the straight ones are only here to see the tits," which was not quite true. Some of us were actually there to see Steve Rossi.

For about seventy minutes, he introduced acts that are now largely a blur. A few of them were while they were still performing. There were two or three strippers with breasts smaller than the Louisiana Purchase, though not by much. There was a comedy magician. There were a few old burlesque sketches…I guess. I have a great memory but some things, the brain cannot get rid itself of fast enough. What remains unblurred is, first of all, Platinum Peaks. I hope that lady made a lot of money from those breasts, invested it wisely, had her chest downsized to normal and has lived happily ever after in a house she owns outright.

I have never been all that enlivened by breast size. I kinda figure that if you like the rest of the woman, the bustline is automatically perfect, whatever size it might be. Still, like the Grand Canyon which I still haven't seen, 77"-88" breasts are something every man must experience once in his life if only to discover how unsexy they can be. My friends and I learned a valuable lesson that evening.

She went next-to-last, then Rossi closed the show. He sang another song or two, then launched into singing impressions of the usual lineup — Frank, Dino, Sammy, Tony Bennett, etc. They weren't bad but I would have preferred he'd stuck with Steve Rossi since he did him better. Then he got to Robert Goulet.

I am not making this up, I promise you.

He began talking about Robert Goulet and about what a wonderful, generous humanitarian he was. He ticked off a list of benefits Robert Goulet had done, charitable work Robert Goulet had done, contributions to the world that Robert Goulet had made. If I were telling you about Dr. Jonas Salk, the man who invented the polio vaccine that has saved millions from that disease, I would not praise his greatness and contribution to society as much as Steve Rossi extolled the awesome wonderfulness of Robert Goulet.

Then Rossi launched into a story that we didn't believe for a minute. He was at some sort of charity event and Robert Goulet was performing…and as he told this story, he got visibly angry. He was angry at the audience at that event because they hadn't given Robert Goulet a standing ovation. Can you believe that? There was that grand man, that selfless entertainer who gave unsparingly of his time and gifts to help out the less fortunate…and that uncaring, unfeeling audience hadn't given the great Robert Goulet a standing ovation!

Rossi calmed down and apologized for getting upset. He said, "You didn't need to hear that, ladies and gentlemen. I'm sure you're not the kind of audience that would fail to give Robert Goulet a standing ovation. And now, if I may, I'd like to honor him in my own way with my impression of the great Robert Goulet."

And then he sang a version of Goulet's biggest hit — and this is verbatim, including the lines which don't rhyme and didn't fit the meter of the song…

If ever I would leave you
You'll give me a standing ovation
Because a standing ovation is what I deserve
Oh no, you won't sit there
You will jump to your feet
And give a standing ovation…to Robert Goulet!

Well, needless to say, we all vaulted from our chairs and gave "Robert Goulet" a thunderous standing ovation via proxy. And Steve Rossi, dropping the impression, bowed and accepted the standing ovation on his own behalf, saying over and over, "You're too kind…too kind…"

After the show, Rossi made himself available for audience autographs. My group waited around while he signed and posed for photos and we heard several audience members ask if Platinum Peaks was available for meeting…or perhaps climbing. Alas, she and the co-stars in her brassiere had been wheelbarrowed off to another gig.  We heard she was downtown at the Union Plaza where, thanks to them, she was able to play the main room and the lounge at the same time.

We met Steve, who brightened up when he heard that he was meeting fellow Strip performers or, in my case, a TV writer. That meant I had the exchange that I endured way too often when I was doing a lot of variety shows. I'd meet a singer or comedian and say something like, "I always admired your work" and then they'd ask —

Well then, how come you've never hired me on any of your shows?

There's no comfortable answer to that. Never has been, never will be. I said I didn't do the casting and that the folks who did had never found the perfect spot for him and that when they do, they'll be in touch and, hey, let's change the subject. We sat with him for about fifteen minutes and apart from The Question, he was very nice and very real and surprisingly humble. To tell you the truth, I liked him better offstage than on. About the show he was doing he said, "Marty only wants to do one performance a night here and so this showroom was just sitting empty at 11:00." Then he added, "And I love to work." That seemed to explain everything.

I managed to make him laugh, though. We asked him about his interim partners — Bernie Allen, Slappy White and a few others. He said nice things about all of them. One of the comedians in our group then said, "A lot of us enjoyed your two new partners." Rossi didn't understand so I explained, "Breasts, each twice the size of Marty Allen." He laughed and said, "Hey, I've got to use that." I'll bet he did.

Allen and Rossi split again for a time before Vegas World came to an end, and Allen moved on to an act he did with his wife at another casino, the Westward Ho.  Rossi popped up here and there at other hotels.  Then in 1995, Marty and Steve reteamed for what may have been the last time and they played the Sands for what I'm pretty sure was the last time. I went, figuring I had to see them together at least once…and I did, sort of but not really. They were both on the stage at the same time but…well, let me explain.

Steve Rossi was introduced by an offstage announcer who was not him. He came out. He sang songs and talked for, I guess, about a half hour. He would occasionally allude to his partner who would be out shortly but it was a solo Steve Rossi performance. I started wondering if maybe Marty hadn't shown up for work yet and Steve was filling until the guy with the frizzy hair arrived. But no…that was how they structured the act now.

Finally, employing so many superlatives you'd have thought he was describing himself, Rossi introduced his partner who he loved so, so much…and out came Marty Allen. And then what happened was that Allen did his solo act with Rossi next to him on stage.

They did not do any of those funny interviews I'd seen on the Sullivan program. They barely talked to each other. Marty favored us with what I'm sure was the same stand-up routine he'd been doing at the Westward Ho, and during it, Steve stood there next to him, holding the hand mike in front of Marty's mouth and laughing uproariously at every single thing Marty said. Steve was not in the act as a partner but as a microphone stand and a "fake laugher" like Milton Berle used to always plant in his audiences.

Allen was pretty humorous but I thought he was upstaged by Rossi, standing there in faux hysterics, trying desperately to not fall over from way too much laughter. I was at a front table and I could see that every so often, Marty gave Steve a little look as if to say, "Hey, tone it down a notch. This isn't that funny." At the end, I think they did a song together, took mutual bows, hugged a bit for our benefit and then exited. I sure got the feeling they weren't driving home from the Sands together. And less than a year later, there was no more Sands Hotel.

I think that engagement was the last time they played Las Vegas and maybe anywhere as a team. Allen went back to the Westward Ho for a while (it's not there anymore, either) and I understand he's semi-retired now, occasionally playing cruise ships. I finally got to meet him at an autograph show last year and he was funny and delightful and really, really happy for non-monetary reasons that so many people wanted to greet him, hear him say "Hello Dere" and get his autograph.

I can't pretend to explain the chemistry or whatever it was that catapulted Allen and Rossi to a certain amount of stardom that eluded almost all of the other teams that used Dean and Jerry for role models. It had something to do with Marty's exuberant good humor, something to do with the fact that Steve was a good singer and straight man, and a lot to do with good breaks and good management. I suspect it was more because of Steve Rossi than seemed obvious when you saw them performing back then. The guy really understood a certain end of show business and how to make it work for himself when he appeared solo and for the both of them when he appeared with Marty.

I'm sorry I never got to see them work together live back when they actually worked together. I'll bet they were a lot better than those six minute spots on The Merv Griffin Show. I'm sure they were a lot better than what I saw at the Sands.

Still, Martin and Lewis — like Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello — were before my time and I only saw Rowan and Martin in a TV studio in Burbank taping short bits for Laugh-In. So Allen and Rossi were the biggest show business "duo" I ever got to see in person. Unless, I guess, you count Platinum Peaks.  I hear one of her breasts quit the act for a time and teamed up with Joe E. Ross.

As you know, the Monty Python guys are doing a series of farewell performances in the U.K. at the moment. These should not be confused with their next series of farewell performances — the ones they will now deny they'll ever do but will schedule as soon as a few of them need money again. Anyway, to promote the current series, they did a number of press conferences and I believe I posted excerpts from this one earlier. This is the entire press event, running almost an hour…

My problems with Time-Warner e-mail not only continue but they have worsened. As you may remember, e-mail that is sent to my domains is automatically forwarded to my Time-Warner account where, in theory, it should be immediately available for reading and downloading by me. I became aware that some of it was not getting there for several hours.

No one at Time-Warner could do much more than keep me on hold for hours so I decided to do a workaround. I opened a Yahoo! account and configured things so my messages were simultaneously forwarded to the Time-Warner account and to my Yahoo! account. The result? They all show up promptly in my Yahoo! account but about a third of them show up much, much later in the Time-Warner account.

Last Monday, we sent the first issue of the Groo Vs. Conan mini-series off to press. That morning, its editor at Dark Horse Comics sent me an e-mail that he desperately needed one thing from me and he needed it by 11 AM. He sent this message at about 10:15 AM, I got it via Yahoo! at 10:16 AM and promptly sent off the needed material. I received his message via my Time-Warner account at 8:50 PM that evening. See the problem?

Several folks who work for Time-Warner around the country have unofficially told me the problem has to be that they have a server somewhere that is malfunctioning. I asked them all if I could possibly be the only person with this problem and they all, independent of one another, answered no. One wrote, "You're probably just one of the few who's noticed. They'll need an avalanche of complaints before they take it seriously."

Okay. Well, I've spent too many hours on the phone talking to Time-Warner employees who either weren't the person who might fix this snafu or weren't especially interested. Since I have a workaround and it doesn't cost me anything extra, I'm going to just live with the situation and get my messages via Yahoo! But I'll continued monitoring the Time-Warner account and see if the problem is ever fixed. If you get your mail via Time-Warner, you might want to take a close look at those time stamps.

Hey, folks. Do me a favor. Don't post my Sergio headers on other blogs and on Facebook and Twitter and other places. They belong on this page and I'd like people to see them for the first time here in the intended context. Thanks.

Paul Waldman writes about the lack of great Conservative novelists and humorists and I think he's on to something. I don't necessarily buy the explanations of why artists are more prone to Liberalism but I do think it's true. And I can't get near this topic without hauling out my old line about how doing comedy from a right-wing viewpoint would be like trying to write a Marx Brothers movie and make Margaret Dumont the funny one.

But yeah…there's a big difference between trying to create comedy from a Conservative perch and having folks who already have a Conservative worldview try to create comedy. I also don't think a right-wing comic these days would please his target audience if he slammed his own side as often as guys like Maher and Stewart skewer theirs.

I would like to deeply apologize to all of you for linking to this article in Playboy by Gilbert Gottfried. It's all about apologies and it's full of very naughty words.

One thing Mr. Gottfried doesn't address and which I think has caused him some of the problems he writes about is that while he is very dirty and very funny, there are a lot of comedians around these days who've only mastered the first half of that parlay. They write down the "f" word and then they have to figure out something to put around it so it sounds like a joke. I think a lot of those guys should apologize, not for the vulgarity but for not having much else to offer. Gottfried's not one of those comics but I can easily see how some people might get confused.

As history, Yankee Doodle Dandy was a pretty bad movie, starting with the fact that George M. Cohan was not born on the Fourth of July. Furthermore, the film invented a largely-false narrative of his life, making him seem like a helluva great guy when, in truth, not a lot of people who knew and worked with him felt that way. Corny? Predictable? Full of a shallow kind of patriotism? Yes to all three.

But I don't care. James Cagney is terrific in it and even when you know what's coming, the story is irresistible. Just writing this and posting the trailer makes me want to watch it again. Here's that trailer…

Workplaces of great artists.

Comic-Con International convenes in San Diego three weeks from now. The convention will be there in 2015 and 2016 and then…

Well, 2016 is the last year under the current contract so we'll soon have the usual rumors of the con moving elsewhere as various parties threaten and promise and negotiate. It's a lot like a comic fan haggling with a dealer over the price of a much-needed issue of Wonder Woman. Then, it is my prediction, a deal will get made and the con will stay right where it is for another hunk of years.

But there will be weeks there when we hear it's moving to Anaheim, it's moving to Los Angeles, it's moving to Las Vegas, it's moving to Tony Isabella's back yard in Medina, Ohio…and so on. Of that list, I think only Anaheim is viable with Tony's place a distant second.

The L.A. Convention Center is the convention center from Hell. Terrible facilities. And the whole financial dynamic of the con would change without all those bucks spent by congoers staying at hotels near the convention, dining near the convention, etc. In San Diego, we impact the economy of the entire city. In L.A. and in Vegas, we'd make a difference in about a four-block-square area and that would change nothing about the economy there and everything about the con.

As for Vegas: Well, here it is…July. And temperatures in that city are expected to hit 111° next week. I shall say no more.

I do not want to go to Anaheim. If you think the traffic and parking are bad in San Diego, try going somewhere three blocks from Disneyland at the peak of tourist season. You know that joke I do every year about how if you want a parking spot for Comic-Con next month, leave now? In Anaheim, I'd have to make it "next year."

And I don't think we will go there. I think San Diego will make a deal and that they'll continue the planned expansion of that fine convention center they have there. Then again, there are those arguing that convention centers around the country, including the one I'm heading to in three weeks, are a foolish waste of taxpayer dollars. Some are campaigning to not expand the place, which might have some effect on the convention's ability/desire to stay.

Recently, a San Diego newspaper ran this article about a new book that argues convention centers are losing propositions for their locales. It's by a gent named Heywood Sanders, described as the nation's ranking expert on convention centers. I'm not sure who ranks such people but the fellow seems to have good credentials.

You'll notice it says in the piece…

When it made its 2013 forecast, San Diego's center claimed that each Comic-Con attendee would spend $613.20. That's absurd, says Sanders, noting that locals make up much of the audience.

That sounds high but not absurd to me. My curiosity is that this year, the convention did not sell four-day passes. Someone who wants to be there all four days had to buy four one-day passes and of course, not everyone could. The hall will be packed every day but I'm wondering if this means we'll have more people who attend at least one day of the con, as opposed to as many who attended all four. (I didn't phrase that well but you know what I'm trying to say.) If so, I'm wondering what this means for the local economy.

I'm also wondering what is a realistic figure of what each Comic-Con attendee spends. Like I said, $613.20 doesn't sound that unreal to me. I know attendees who spend that much to stay at a Motel 6 in Chula Vista for the duration. And you should see what the Best Western is asking near Tony's house in Medina.

Kentucky is the latest state where a judge has struck down a ban on Gay Marriage. It's on appeal but so far, I don't think any of those appeals have succeeded.

One thing I find fascinating about all this is how weak the arguments against legalizing Gay Marriage have been. If you're angry that Proposition 8 was overturned in California, go find and read the transcripts of the oral arguments. You'll wind up thinking the guy arguing for Prop 8 had been bribed to throw the case.

The one in Kentucky is really feeble. Essentially, the attorney arguing to keep the ban argued that traditional marriage contributed to a stable birth rate and, therefore, the state's long-term economic stability. In other words, if we let gay people marry, straight people will begin having an unpredictable number of children. In knocking this down, U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II wrote…

Even assuming the state has a legitimate interest in promoting procreation, the Court fails to see, and Defendant never explains, how the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage has any effect whatsoever on procreation among heterosexual spouses. Excluding same-sex couples from marriage does not change the number of heterosexual couples who choose to get married, the number who choose to have children, or the number of children they have.

Years ago, a gay friend of mine said that one of the problems he and other gay folks faced was the vast number of straight people who just plain didn't understand Gay. He said, "They think they can pass laws to make us all straight." I thought that was silly when he said it but this is not the first time I've thought, "Hey, maybe Jonathan was right."

If you want to read Judge Heyburn's decision, it's here but the gist of it is when he writes of the Defendants' positions, "These arguments are not those of serious people." He actually wrote that.

The case against Gay Marriage was not made by the state's Attorney General, by the way. He refused to go in and defend the law so the Governor hired an outside law firm to argue that position. That was sure money well-spent.

Here's another number from a Gypsy of the Year competition in New York, this one from 2010. As I've explained, this is an event — two performances only — held by the most excellent charity, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Every show then playing on Broadway contributes one sketch or song and a lot of it is very "inside" humor for those in the industry. There's also always an amazing opening number and this was the one for that year, featuring a bevy of chorus boys and Carol Channing. Ms. Channing is 93 years old now but that year, she was a much more youthful, spry 89…

$61.97. A new low.

And now it's jumped up to $62.99. As several folks have written to tell me — and as I kinda already knew — Amazon is "fulfilling" orders for other companies and as the number consigned by each outside vendor is sold, the page offers copies of the same product from another vendor who might have a slightly different price…or a planned price drop as they reach or don't reach certain sales goals by certain times. I'm going to stop watching this. If you want a copy of this great Blu-ray set, here's the link for the last time. Maybe.